What is infantile amnesia? Describe at least two different theories for why people experience infantile amnesia.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Most people cannot recall events before age 3 because of what we call infantile amnesia. Various explanations have been proposed for the occurrence of infantile amnesia; one involves physical changes occurring in the brain. The brain is far from complete when an infant is born. Two areas that are necessary for memory processes are the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. Important parts of these two areas only become functional between 20 and 24 months of age (Bauer, 2007). We will see that memory ability improves as these areas of the brain continue to develop throughout childhood and adolescence. A related idea is that the production of new neurons in the hippocampus during infancy causes reorganization of this area of the brain that interferes with the formation of stable memories. Other explanations have relied on psychological or cognitive explanations. Courage and Howe (2004) have argued that before infants have a clear sense of self, their memories are not organized into a coherent story of their own lives, in other words they do not have a clear autobiographical memory. It is much harder to remember random events than those that tie together in a meaningful way.